The Lissebeck's and the San Diego Fires

We are safe and the house is still okay. It is a very bad situation, the smoke is horrible, the sun is blocked and has an orange glow, and the wind is nothing like I have ever seen before, and I have seen Santa Annas! We have been in a mandatory evacuation zone since early sunday morning, and although I did pack the cars we were stubborn and didn't leave until last night (monday) around 9:00 p.m. when we had the sherriff knock on the door... Mike and the Dog still stayed behind, but I took the kids and went to a neighbor's sisters house down by Sea World, as the 15 freeway north was closed so we could only go south. The kids and I slept on the floor of the living room in our sleeping bags, which I had thought to throw in the car at the very last minute. Mike said that there was another knock on the door around 12:30 a.m. by a sherrif, but Mike pretended he wasn't home, he couldn't see any fire around the house and he didn't want to leave the neighborhood, as there were now reports of Looting (like people aren't suffering enough!) When we woke up, they still wouldn't let us in to our neighborhood, so the kids and I spent the day down by Mission Bay, so they could run around, and breath some relatively clean air, Mike gave me updates on the cell phone, and we waited until the 15 freeway north opened again so I could head out to my mom and dads (they cut their vacation short to New Mexico and drove 800 miles; 14 hours; to get home Monday night). Driving north on the 15 freeway was errie, as the smoke was sill so thick and the fire was smoldering for most of the way up on both sides of the 15. Getting to the border patrol check point on North 15 was like driving through a curtin. All of a sudden the smoke vanished, and there was a clear blue sky - wow I had forgoten how blue the sky is!!
Mike's golf course (Maderas) is farther north east of were we live and was in the middle of the fire storm. There are 3 million dollar + houses surrounding it, and we know many of them were burned down or sustained major damage, although they aren't letting anyone in the area yet. Mike has "heard rumors" that the pro-shop and resturant are still standing, and of course the course itself, being so green is okay - but we now know that all the trees and landscaping surrounding the course were burned, including the beautiful oak trees. They lost some equipment, part of their maintanence barn, and a bunch of bridges, so some re-building will have to be done. Now the concern is getting water to the drying out grass, as there is still no power- but that is a small concern, and the most important thing is that no one was hurt. We have several friends who lost their houses and many many more who do not know.
The kids are handling it okay, they have of course been a bit traumatized, and when we arrived at Oma & Opa's were full of stories, smelled of smoke, and had soot on their legs, hands and faces! But after some baths, some hot food, and some play time in the clear blue sky - they were much more relaxed again.
Mike is still giving me updates on the house, looks like we should be just fine, although the wind is now shifting back to the East, which means that the fire might be coming back our way. Currently, the fire is about 5 miles North of our houase. With over 275,000 acres burned and 1750 houses destroyed - we are very fortunate- and hopefully will remain so!